BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET trailer from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

In his first feature doc, Paul Owens looks into ChipTunes, a new underground electronic music genre consisting of music made on out-of-date video game hardware. Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet, screening on the 24 Beats Per Minute program, premieres on Saturday night at the Dobie. The trailer’s above, and Paul Owens answers our questions below.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet delves into this music movement known as ChipTunes, which is based around using forgotten videogame hardware (nintendo, atari, gameboy) to create new, original music.

I made the movie with Asif Siddiky, who did the cinematography, and Paul Levering, who was the producer. In the beginning, we checked out a live chiptune show and we were all blown away. We’d never seen or heard anything like it, but because it was sort of anchored to this classic videogame sound, it instantly struck a chord with us. Slowly we accumulated live footage, interviews, important moments in the scene and two years later, we had a documentary.


Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.

Yeah, it’s not much fun. Asif and I basically do freelance camerawork, or whatever we can get. Our producer, Paul Levering, works at a grocery store in New Jersey. We’re all hoping he can quit that job soon.

The film itself was made using “borrowed” equipment and was entirely self-financed.

Have you been to SXSW before? If so, tell us about your funniest story from the experience. If not, what are you looking forward to re: the festival and/or the city of Austin?

Never been to SXSW, or any other film festival. I’m looking forward to watching the movie with an audience finally. Sounds pretty satisfying, unless for some reason they really hate the movie…

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

Ernest Goes to Jail ’cause it’s got that scene where he’s executed in an electric chair, but he comes back to life and now can shoot electricity from his fingers!

Then maybe I’ll watch Ernest Saves Christmas.